A blog for Small Business Consultants and the vendors who serve them. It contains Opinions on business success, News in the SMB consulting space, and Information on what I'm up to.All material Copyright (c) 2006-2020 by Karl W. Palachuk unless otherwise noted.

Sunday, December 30, 2007

The Smartest Blogs on the Internet

In the world of technical consulting, there are two sides of the office: Those who deliver technical solutions and those who figure out where the business is going and how to get there.

Michael Gerber (The E-Myth Revisited) labels these as "working in the business" vs. "working on the business."

In the smallest I.T. consulting firms, these are the same people. In a one person shop, the owner simply does everything. But with just a little growth, the division emerges quickly.

I believe both sides of the office need to read material directed to both sides. Technicians need to understand the business side of business. And owners and strategists need to keep connected with the technology.

To that end, let me recommend two blogs that are absolute must-read material for both sides of the office.

Susan's blog is filled with no-apologies technical stuff about 80% of the time (and no apologies other stuff the other 20%). It really is must-read material. Many consultants in the small biz space go to Susan's blog first when they're looking for a solution. A quick search brings up only the information related to this space. After that you can check out technet.

You may not agree with everything he says, or the way it's presented, but for an analysis of the business you're in, Vladville is the smartest blog on the internet. Just look over his posts for the last week! In fact, this entire post was inspired by his article on Arthur Miller and the Death of an SMB Tech Salesman.

My complete reaction to that post this morning was "Damn this is good. Thank God someone's thinking about this stuff."

I suspect that these two blogs are particularly useful because neither author is exactly in our space. Neither of them is a consultant with a shop on the corner. Both of them interact with SMB consultants and clients all the time. So they get to see us in a little different light.

I read about ten blogs consistently and check out another half dozen from time to time. No one can keep up with everything, and I'm sure I'm missing some great stuff. But to keep the two sides of my brain tuned up at all times, I keep up on Susan and Vlad.

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FTC Disclosure Statement

I make every attempt to honestly state what I believe and enjoy the freedom of posting whatever I feel like on this blog. This is a big complicated world and I have many interconnected personal and professional relationships.

I may in some way receive money or other benefits from any of the products, services, or companies mentioned in this blog as a direct or indirect result of my actions on and off this blog. Any experience mentioned here is just my experience and I have no knowledge about whether it represents a typical experience with any products, services, or companies mentioned.

Whenever it is possible to have both an honest and a misleading interpretation of my statements, please assume honesty. Thanks. - karlp